Great preamp for < $1000 (not necessarily vintage-like)?

Hi, anybody have any ideas about what a good bass preamp would be for under $1000? Unlike the poster below, I'm not really looking for a fat, vintage, "tubey" sound--I'm looking more for something clean, accurate, light, and quiet that does not sound cold and clinical. It can be tube or SS, I have no preferences or preconceptions. The sound is the point, not the specific technology used to achieve it.

For starters, I figure I should look at the Demeter, the Kern, the smaller (and cheaper) Aguilar, and maybe the Eden Navigator. Dunno about the Alembic.

The ADA is very processed sounding so you'll have a strong opinion about it either way.
As always, the best way to go about it is to audition every preamp in your price range. Also, make sure you are using the same power amp and speaker cabinet when testing the preamps. Here is a list of all pramps that SELL under $1000...

The ADA has been discontinued for several years, as ADA hasn't been in business for several years . As for the SWR pre's, the Grand Prix is still listed on their price list and in their product catalog, and we haven't recieved any notice (I work at Bass Central) of it being discontinued. The Interstellar Overdrive is also still available, but only as a special order item, not a normal stock one.

there are a number of players in my area who love the Kern preamp. I've tried it and it seems to be right in the middle of the road sound-wise between the cleanliness of the Demeter and the fatness of the Alembic pre-amps. I'm currently using an Alembic F 2B which I find can produce some very usable tones in a number of situations. Only one way to describe this pre - FAT!!!

Richard,
Happy to be of help! I checked out the Hevos website, seems like interesting gear. The price seems reasonable. If you have the opportunity to audition Hevos amps, please let us know how they sound. Of course companies like Eden, Aguilar, Demeter etc. build their line by hand as well. Consider everything, even gear you've heard negative things about because even though they may not work for others, they may work for you!

It has worked very well for me. It is 2 rack spaces, but contains and entire rack of effects as well as both tube and solid state pre amps. x-15 foot controller lets you turn presets instantly, and has 2 expression pedals to change any paremeter. Even without the effects it is still a great preamp if you can find one used. Cheers, and bass forever.

Granted these are all generalities and opinions. It does make for a lot of detailed and interesting reading.

The Navigator seems to have the more flexible and usable controls, but so many knobs... wow. I need a rig with an adjustable Linkwitz-Riley 24 dB crossover (Rane), and a parametric equalizer where I can dial the Q and the centerpoint between 30 and 45 Hz.

I guess I'm hunting for just a preamp with good tone, and will have to add the EQ and Crossover as additional devices in the signal chain. I'm leaning toward driving it with a Crown PowerTech-3 amp head.

Anybody got the name of a real good parametric EQ in the range I mentioned above?

KERN 777: I've have no problems and someone I know who has one and tours all over with it has no problems with the Kern. I ordered mine without the wallwart but with a built in power supply and ground lift for the DI at not extra charge for under $700. It sounds phenomenal. You may like Demeter or the "baby" Aguilar (I think the DB680 or whatever is way overpriced) but I think it would be a shame for you to not try the Kern. It sounds incredible, the tone controls are simple and massively effective, and it's quiet. A unit I plan to keep for decades.

i agree. the Kern definately sounds good. the funny thing is that its almost impossible to get a bad sound out of it, no matter what settings you're using - a different world from the navigator for sure. its really easy to sound like crap through the navigatory if you don't know what you're doing eq wise.

I ordered mine without the wallwart but with a built in power supply. It sounds incredible, the tone controls are simple and massively effective, and it's quiet. A unit I plan to keep for decades.

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JimS, would you mind posting some of the specs for the Kern? Their site is very weak on details.

I'm interested in where the tone controls are centered. If there is an EQ, where it centers, etc.

I think ordering with 120VAC built in is the right way to go here. The Kern site mentions using the wallwart because of "local laws", yet all the other major preamp manufacturers avoided using them. Something doesn't jive.

I'm not an electronics maven but I have noticed that some high end products with seemingly low end wall wart power supply do so because it makes it easy to adapt the unit to 120v and 220v (European) and they don't have to make two separate power supplies. See my post in the adjacent " fat sounding vintage" or whatever preamp/amp thread.